Will Devon & Cornwall be ok to go to in July?

[EinsteinaGogo]

We are in a real dilemma.. We have to pay the balance on our holiday in the next couple of weeks which is about another £800 on top of the £400 deposit already paid.

We've gone for a self catering holiday flat on the Devon / Cornwall border for last week of June /
first week in July.

Don't really want to go if the touristy places we'd usually go to aren't open but our holiday company are only offering a reschedule so will lose our money if we cancel. We have a family wedding next year (hopefully) so we don't want to rebook.

We were pretty sure we'd still be in lockdown and be able to get a refund but now that the new rules are in place, I don't know if we are or aren't allowed to go.

AIBU to think we should be able to get our deposit back?

Those living in tourist areas would benefit themselves if a few visitors came giving enough clientele for places to open up on a takeaway basis

Loads of places are open for takeaway down here. Amazingly the locals are supporting them!

That could be two years, or never. The West Country won’t survive without tourism that long

This.

Alternatively come to London OP. We’re less anxious and insular and we actually like tourists. Unless you are a Londoner of course, in which case it may be tents in the garden time.

@ITonyah I think it's just the optimism that the government will subside these businesses through this summer and through winter when there is a natural decline in income; they won't. I suppose though if they all go bust these outsiders who have managed to keep working can come in and buy them all. Some estimates say that this might not 'go away' or up to 5 years, are these businesses trying to implement anything that resembles social distancing? Are your pubs allowing takeaways for locals etc? Or is everything locked up naievely expecting everything to be fine? The real issue is places not refunding bookings, if the government allows it in the coming months (which they will) then of course people are going to go if they aren't being refunded.

Flight prices are going to go up, international travel is going to be tough. The SW will do very nicely out of this in the long term. Other areas don’t have the beaches and mild climate.

I agree. People won't be able to go abroad so they'll holiday in the UK. We will be doing it ourselves. Not going to be happy travelling on a plane for a long while, so if it is safe, we will probably go to Wales (in many months).

@Polar0pposite foreign holiday prices next year aren't looking too bad at the moment I'm about to book one as prices are ok as they are in same dilemma they need money

I do believe the SW will suffer for a long time because of this. All tourist-heavy areas are (quite rightly) discouraging visitors at this time but, in the case of the Cotswolds or the Lake District, for example, local people on social media could not be more lovely. Generally welcoming and “we miss you and hope to see you soon”. The same sadly cannot be said for Cornwall (or, to a lesser extent, Devon). People will remember this.

No @Easilyanxious if people form Cornwall or Devon ever go on holiday, which I presume they do @Chiyo666? They don't drink, are never stupid, don't fill up the beaches, they're the perfect holidaymakers, they just stay in their accommodation and you'd never know they were there!

No but I don’t holiday in the middle of a pandemic like a moron

Covid levels in Devon and Cornwall were low when London was high. By July they may we’ll be hotspots, particularly if people start to travel more.

It's local restaurants and things I worry about, rather than holiday parks (who haven't furloughed all of their staff - most but not all). When they can reopen, I'll be using them rather than going to any chains.

@Chiyo666 but people are in about coming if it's allowed which part of that do you not get
If places are allowed to open then it will be assume it is a safe as possible to do so and we may have this virus for years
No one is expecting the same type of holiday and know social distancing etc but come August maybe things will be a little better who knows

I have a place booked in Cornwall for July. I can’t pretty to go!
I mean if Boris can send kids back to school then I can’t see why I shouldn’t be allowed to go to Cornwall for the week when schools finished with my kids.
Il take plenty of food and enjoy some takeaways

I can’t wait to go*

Easily there are going to be less planes as companies go bust and quarantine likely to be involved either side if spikes. There will need to be social distancing on the planes that run so less people on planes making them more expensive to run.Getting insurance will be hard. Add in the fear of catching germs on planes and getting ill abroad. Can’t see how prices won’t rise.

I for one will be playing safe and staying in UK.

But @Chiyo666 you weren't talking about the pandemic m, to remind you you said that LAST YEAR (FYI pre pandemic), the tourists were drunks or idiots and that's ALL the lifeboats had to deal with!

Come on, keep up on the actual insults you've thrown, you might end up looking like your stupid otherwise!

I like many others need the sea on holiday. Cotswolds and Lakes don’t have that.

My husbands auntie runs a gift shop by the beach in a tourist town in Devon. There’s no point talking about how things will be better in 2022 - by then she’ll be destitute in her 60s.

@Easilyanxious it may be “allowed” but anyone with more than 2 brain cells will be able to figure out what will happen when masses of people come down to a relatively unaffected area. It’s going to cause spikes in the virus and not just that, anxiety in our very elderly population who may feel unsafe to go out while the tourists are all sitting around in the parks and the beaches. When my grandparents have already been isolating for 3 months why should they then have to further isolate just because entitled people think their right to a holiday on a pretty beach trumps their right to go about their lives in the place they actually live.

Does she want tourists back this summer?

People booked holidays before the pandemic in good faith. Put pressure on the self catering accommodation and hotel owners And campsite owners etc to cancel and give people their money back - work together as a county for what that county apparently wants. Then tourists won’t come without the need to create any sort of hostile environment to deter. People who are asking questions now almost certainly won’t come anyway - they are just dithering because of the money and deposits etc. I’m sure if all the people Cornwall and Devon don’t want tourists they can solve this together collectively and the accommodation owners will be happy to return money and cancel for the good of the residents :)

It's a fact that hospital admissions rise sharply in the summer because the population levels are much higher due to tourists. And that's without a pandemic, and tourists suddenly deciding they've got coronavirus, so need to self isolate in their nice holiday cottage by the sea and can't possibly travel as they are now infectious.

Do you really think when travel is allowed no Cornish person will leave Cornwall either , and others have said campaign to have all sites holiday cottages closed and refund money if there's nowhere to stay no one can come

Clearly Cornish and Devonian residents are united here, so I’m sure you can persuade those who own holiday accommodation to give certainty to both residents and potential tourists by cancelling and giving people their money back. Then residents won’t need to worry or create a hostile environment. Problem solved

@Chiy that's not what you said or implied though is it you made out all tourists are an issue pre pandemic as well . That's certainly how it came across

Please don’t come OP.
We live in the area that you are coming to and there are very limited hospital facilities.
Yes, the beaches may be open but the parks are closed, the toilets are closed. I went shopping yesterday and we are still struggling to get food on the shelves. So although you may want to self cater, you may be eating baked beans for most of the week. The restaurants are likely to be closed, a lot of the restaurants are doing takeaways but cornwall being Cornwall, you either have to book it at lunchtime or prepared for a 2 to 3 hour wait in the evening.
My husband is a local doctor down here and rates of Covid are increasing week on week. We are about a month behind the south-east, so I’m not sure why you would want to come anyway.
Rebook for next year and have a proper holiday then.